


Better Brother, Better Son

by hueue



Category: Adventure Time, Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Gen, a little talk about parents, also there is no context we just vibin, if you know what song the title is from keep your mouth shut, let em REST, ok they would be FRIENDS, these boys have been thru enOUGH
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-23
Updated: 2020-05-23
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:55:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,181
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24332383
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hueue/pseuds/hueue
Summary: Two sons have a conversation about parents and what can be doneOr: You have your mother's eyes
Relationships: Steven Universe & Finn the Human
Comments: 13
Kudos: 151





	Better Brother, Better Son

**Author's Note:**

> they would be FRIENDS GODDAMNIT!!!!!  
> also they can bond over one of their parents just being a widdle bit of a bastard  
> no context, just vibes

_Clang!_

Finn’s sword clashed against the pastel colors of Steven’s hardlight shield, sending glittering sparks into the air. Steven grinned, whipping his arm aside, sending his partner stumbling back before he regained his footing and doubled his attack. He slashed and stabbed, pulling back only when Steven leaped forward with his own attack much to Finn’s delight. 

The late spring heat beat down on the duo as they sparred in the patch of clear land surrounded by flowery magnolia trees. Steven skidded to a stop, briefly letting up his intense expression for his typical soft face, “Yes or no to magic?” 

“Dude, yes!” Finn exclaimed, “Whole hog sparring match!” 

“Gotcha!” the teen pushed off into the air and flipped over the other, kicking the sword from his hands before landing with a showy smirk. 

The human’s blue eyes widened, “Holy cow!”

Steven picked up the sword and offered it to him, “Pretty cool, right?” 

Finn grabbed it, flipping in his hand, “Yeah, man!” 

“Ready to go again?”

“Aw, yiss!”

“Okay!” he summoned his shield again, dodging a sword slash aimed for his midsection. It was different from sparring with Connie―with her he was always worried about going too hard (even though he knew that she could take whatever was thrown at her) but with Finn he was just sparring with a fighter that had (from what he’d told him) fought the _literal_ embodiment of chaos multiple times at, like, thirteen. It made Steven’s spats with his mom’s family seem tame. He still held back, he was a Diamond and even _he_ didn’t know how much power came with that and he wasn’t keen on repeating the last time he’d let himself put everything into a fight. 

He froze up at the thought of Jasper and what _he_ had done to her, his skin prickled. 

“Cripes!” Finn stuck his sword into the ground and put his hands up, “You’re skin’s gettin’ all pink, you said to stop if that happens.” 

“Y-Yeah, yeah.” he paused to take in rehearsed breaths until his heart rate settled, “Sorry, sorry, so-sorry. I just, I just th-thought about something and―”

“No sweat, Steve-dude!” he sat in the waist high grass, “Take a lil break, s’okay.”

Steven exhaled, “Yeah. Just a bad thought, just a thought” 

“Yoof. See, I lock all my bad stuff in the Vault.” 

“The Vault?” 

“Yup! Part of my brain that all the bad stuff goes in like, bloop!”

He snorted from the absurdity of the statement, he sat next to him with a tired smile, “Finn, that’s like, crazy unhealthy. But same, also.”

“Eh, it works, kinda.” 

Steven shrugged off his jacket and tied it around his head to shield the sun, “You should probably talk to a therapist or something…” he cast a quizzical glance to his partner, “do you guys _have_ therapists where you’re from?” 

“Maybe? Bubblegum would know, she’s smart like that.”

“And Bubblegum is…?”

“Princess of the Candy Kingdom.”

“Wow,” he pushed back his curls, “I can’t believe you guys have actual _kingdoms!_ And princesses! I mean I’m, like, technically I’m a prince but you know a princess named Bubblegum! Wait,” he paused, “she isn’t…”

“Yes, she’s made out of bubblegum.” 

“Oh, my stars.” he laid back with a goofy smile, “I don’t know why I’m so shocked by this― _I’m_ the alien with a rock in his stomach here. Are you the only human where you live? Because so far I know your brother’s a dog, you’re friends with a vampire, a wizard, and a piece of gum.”

“Well,” he chewed his lip, pulling at his hat until it revealed an almost comical amount of silky, golden hair, “I thought I was for a while but then me, Jake, BMO, and our friend Susan found these islands _full_ of humans that had been hiding out since the war, and like…” his energy dimmed, Steven sat up, “my mom and dad.” 

His eyebrows drew together, “Oh. Rough subject?” Finn nodded, “Same here. What’s up with yours?” 

“Just...uh, I dunno.” he sighed, running his metal hand through his hair. Without his hat he looked much less like a strange being from the future and much more like a seventeen-year-old that had been through too much in too short a time, “I spent a lot of time thinking I was, like, an orphan, y’know? Joshua and Margaret―Jake and Jermaine’s parents―they raised me ‘n’ stuff but I always knew that I was supposed to have human parents so when I found out Martin was still _alive_ it was bonkers to yonkers. He had been in this big cosmic prison for real bad guys for years and I never knew.”

“Martin’s your dad?” 

“Yeah.”

“He was in _cosmic prison?”_

“Yup, never found out what he did but it had to be somethin’ bad. I kept trying to ask him why he abandoned me but it was like he didn’t care? Like me being his son was just...whatever...” he huffed, drawing his scraped knees to his chest, “Then he straight up abandoned me again after he did _this_ to me.”

He pointed to his metal arm that met halfway with pale flesh, Steven’s eyes widened in horror, “No, he didn’t…” he swallowed, “ _he’s_ the reason you lost your arm?” 

“I-I was trying to hold onto this thing that he was using to escape, Jake kept telling me to let go because Martin’s a total loser but I didn’t listen and…” he blew a raspberry, “one less arm _and_ it was my favorite one. Went on a whole revenge thing about it, totally planned to rip his arm off―built a tower to space and everythin’ but it wouldn’t’ve helped much.” 

“That’s horrible…” Steven breathed out, “Finn, I’m so sorry.” 

“S’all good. I’m used to the arm and I haven’t talked to Martin in, like, a year. He didn’t want to be in my life and I don’t _want him_ to be in my life, I have my family. He knows I hate him so that’s that.” he shrugged, tilting his face towards the mid-day sun. 

The two sat in silence for a moment, just the breeze rustling the grass and the soft buzz of the bees to make up for the lapse in conversation. Steven pulled at his hair, 

“You want to know something awful?” he muttered, Finn raised an eyebrow, a silent confirmation, “I-I _wish_ I could say that about my mom.”

“Say what?”

“Say th-that I hate her.” 

He bit the inside of his cheek, “Do you?”

“I don’t know.” he groaned, “ _I don’t know!_ She left so much of a mess for me to fix, so many broken people to come after me and try to kill me because they think I’m her and they want some sort of _vengeance._ Or closure? They want something. Her family, _my_ family, thought I was her for a while and it led to...” his hand drifted to the diamond, “stuff.”

“They think you’re her? That’s shacrazy” 

“People don’t think it anymore but for a while they did and _I_ did, I guess.” Steven stared down at his hands, “I didn’t think I was real for so long because of her, I thought I was just another way for her to dodge the blame but I-I am real. _I’m real.”_ he repeated, fighting the urge to slip into a spiral, “My mom...she made a lot of mistakes, she started a war where she was fighting _herself_ the whole time and nobody knew except Pearl and she makes me so _angry_ but I just can’t bring myself to say I hate her. Because I miss her and I guess I understand why she did _some_ things...it’s a lot.” 

Finn frowned, “You ever tell her this stuff?” 

“Ah, no, well, she, um,” he awkwardly laughed, “she had to give up her physical form to make me so we’ve never really been able to talk because she’s...she’s gone.” 

“Yeesh!” he exclaimed, “That really sucks, man.”

“I know! I just wish I could _talk_ to her, just once. Whenever I think about it o-or dream about it I ask her questions and she answers me and I get to yell at her and she’d...hug me like a mom does.” he buried his face in his hands, “Jeez, that sounds pathetic.”

The other shook his head, “No, no! Nah, dude. I get it. When I met my mom she had already died or was something before dying from this disease that hit her island and had put her brain into a bunch of these helper robots; we actually got to talk through this virtual reality thing but I...I never knew if it was really her.”

“ _Oh._ Oh, that’s…” Steven wrapped his arms around himself, “oh, dear.” 

Another lull, Finn stretched out, “Whaddabout your dad?”

“My dad?” he bounced his knee, “Yeah, uh, my dad’s great. He really supports me and he’s really helping me get my mental h-health in order; I was a little mad at-t him for ke-keeping me from my human family but th-they were _abusive_ and they _hurt him_ and uh,” 

He felt something heavy on his shoulder; he tilted his head to see Finn had put his metal arm on his shoulder, his face laced with concern, “Ya alright?” 

“Sorry. Sorry, sorry, sorry. I just feel kinda stupid right now? Erm, yeah, sorry.” 

“That’s bunk, dude, why?”

“Because! Aurgh, you have it worse than me and I was just complaining that I miss somebody I’ve never even _met!”_ he shouted, “Your dad tore your _arm off!_ Your mom died of a disease before you could even meet her after all those years an-and all my mom did was _disappear!_ Y-You thought that you were the only one of your species for years! You’ve _earned_ the right to be bummed about it...you’ve actually suffered…” 

Finn shrugged, “And?” 

Steven blinked, “What?”

“And? Why does me going through schlizz mean you can’t be bummed, we’re different people.” 

“Be-Because, I don’t even know why I’m mad most of the time! The people that hurt me have apologized but I’m still _angry_ and it’s not fair to them!” 

“Why should it be fair to ‘em? They donked it up with you.” 

“Because...because…” he sighed heavily, “I don’t know. It’s parents stuff, it’s never gonna be easy for me. With my mom stuff and heck, even dad stuff. I thought both of them were _perfect_ for so long and the rug’s just been pulled from under me but you...gosh. I have no idea how you cope with that, _I_ barely do and I’m in therapy and on enough antidepressants to stun a horse.” 

Finn laughed, “Well, I have Jake, P.B. and Marceline, even Simon! And all the other peeps in Ooo, stuff gets tough sometimes but I’m tough, too.” he elbowed Steven, “And you’re a tough guy, Stevie.” 

“Yeah...it’s just, she’ll always be a part of me. My dad says we have the same laugh and Pearl used to say I looked like her all the time. That I have her eyes.” 

“That’s not too bad.”

“Is it?” 

“I mean. A part of her is still alive in you,” he shrugged, “that’s how I kinda thought about it when it came to _my_ mom. She used to help people and _I_ help people, I got her genes. Good ol’ helpin’ people genes, same hair and eyes, too. You got your mom’s laugh. She’s not around but she’s not gone forever _._ ” 

Steven looked out to the blooming magnolia trees, “Huh.”

“Plus,” he continued, “Jake’s a dad, he’s gotta bunch of kids with his gf, Lady. He tried his best raising them, like stressed out his domepiece worryin’ about ‘em and did everything he could for ‘em and he still messed up sometimes. He loves them a lot but he didn’t do perfect, I don’t think any parent has done _perfectly_ . And we can’t control it,” he elbowed Steven, “nobody chooses who their parents are―you think _I_ wanted Martin to be my dad? Blergh. All we can do is make the best of it, ya got me?”

“Yeah. Yeah, I got you.” he breathed, he looked over, “Your mom sounds really nice.”

Finn smiled a gap-toothed grin, “So does your dad.” 

Steven stood and walked over to where his duffle bag sat next to the Dondai, he pulled out two juice boxes from it’s pocket, “Catch.” 

The teen effortlessly caught the beverage then examined it closely, “What’s dis?” 

“Juice box. You might not have seen one before, it’s just juice in a little box. You stick the straw in the hole. It’s Durian flavored, it’s _sooo_ good.” 

“Oh, math!” 

He sat back down, raising his own juice box to Finn’s, “To being our parents' sons.”

Finn raised his, “To being okay with that.”

They touched corners and stuck the straw into the hole, contently drinking and enjoying the weather. Steven ran a hand through his ringlets of curls, Finn adjusted his metal arm. 

Nothing was ever really gone.

**Author's Note:**

> this is not the time for me to talk about how well i think steb/finn would work. the time will come. it would work. 
> 
> steven is ONE HUNDRED PERCENT one of those people who doesn't think he can talk about traumatizing shit because somebody else at some point had it worse than him


End file.
